Retirement-age pensions go up by 10% from July 1

Bulgaria’s Parliament on June 28 approved that all retirement-age pensions will be increased by 10% from 1 July, adopting at second reading the update of the budget of the State Social Secuirty.

Thus, the minimum pension will become BGN 467, which includes the 60 BGN Covid supplement. The ceiling of the maximum pension is also increased - to 2000 BGN.

A new recalculation of pensions is planned for 1 October, and the ceiling will be raised to BGN 3,400 from that date.

Labour and Social Policy Minister, Georgi Gokov, thanked the Parliament and assured that the experts from the National Social Security Institute will do their best to make the necessary calculations and next month people will receive their recalculated pensions.

Neither the GERB-UDF proposals for a 15% increase nor the MRF proposal of 14% increase were accepted. Both parties insisted that the Covid supplement of 60 BGN should not be included in the total minimum pension on the grounds that it would distort the pension system.

Social committee chair Iskren Arabadzhiev explained the outgoing government's motives for the proposed option to raise the minimum pension from 1 July.

"We chose this option because this way pensioners get the 10% increase, which compensates for the inflation and the growth of the social security income. In next year’s update, we will also provide for an increase with the inflation rate and the growth of social security income from this year," he said.

The MRF proposed a 14% increase and a separate BGN120 supplement to be paid by the end of the year and rejected the government's estimates.